Bible Handbook

How Long Was Christ In The Grave?

In the following texts we are told nine times that Christ should rise “the third day.” BHB 182.5

• Matthew 16:21. “Raised again the third day.” BHB 182.6

• Matthew 17:23. “The third day He shall be raised again.” BHB 182.7

• Matthew 20:19. “The third day He shall rise again.” BHB 182.8

• Mark 10:34. “The third day He shall rise again.” BHB 182.9

• Luke 9:22. “Be raised the third day.” BHB 183.1

• Luke 18:33. “The third day He shall rise again.” BHB 183.2

• Luke 24:7. “The third day rise again.” BHB 183.3

• Mark 9:31. “He shall rise the third day.” BHB 183.4

• Luke 24:46. “To rise form the dead the third day.” BHB 183.5

In order that the Scripture be fulfilled, Christ must have risen some time within the limit of the twenty-four hours composing the third day. BHB 183.6

At the first Passover after His baptism, the Saviour said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:19. In other words, within the period of time covered by the third day, He would rise. This made a deep impression on the Jews, for they brought it up against His three years later in His trial. Matthew 26:61. BHB 183.7

On Thursday evening, or what would in Bible time be the evening of Friday, the Saviour delivered Himself into the hands of the wicked mob; from that time He was in their power. In Mark 8:31. Christ said He would be “rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Sometime before the angry mob came to arrest Him, He had been “rejected,” otherwise they would never have gathered to take Him. “After three days” had passed from the time of His rejection, He rose again. Christ was arrested Thursday evening; the trial lasted all night. At noon on Friday He was crucified. He died about three o’clock in the afternoon, and rested in the tomb until the third day. BHB 183.8

The Jews asked for a sign. Matthew 12:38-40. After saying the wicked ask for signs, Christ said that they should have the sign of Jonas the prophet. “As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” If we take this language literally as it reads, we must understand that Christ spent three days and three nights in the heart, or center, of the earth; but the tomb of Joseph in which the Saviour lay was on the surface of the ground in plain sight. The term “earth” is often used when referring to the people on the earth. Jeremiah 6:19; Isaiah 1:2. From the evening Christ delivered Himself into the hands of the mob until He came forth a mighty conqueror, He was in the hands of the people; the “heart of the earth.” BHB 183.9

This is according to the words of the angel: “The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” Luke 24:4-7. He rose the third day after He delivered Himself “into the hands of sinful men.” BHB 184.1